Tweet I noted in an earlier post that the first oppressor of Israel was a world-emperor, that the second was a regional power, then the rest of the oppressors were much more close to home. By the time we reach these last chapters of the book the enemy is Israel...

Tweet Symbolic of the twelve tribes there are twelve judges in the book of Judges. Thus in order to reach the number 12 there are brief asides mentioning Shamgar (Judges 3:31), Tola and Jair (Judges 10:1-5), and Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon (Judges 12:8-15). It is...

Tweet The nation of Israel continues its downward spiral with Gideon’s cycle. The cycle opens, “The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, and YHWH gave them into the hand of Midian seven years” (Judges 6:1). The Midianites,...

Tweet The very first judge was also the best judge and the one with the least “exciting” cycle. We saw in Joshua that the text was not written to be a movie script. One of the main reasons for this is that the bloodshed, which is what makes the movies...

Tweet The contrast of Joshua and Judges is obvious from the very beginning. The latter prophetic book shows us the downward spiral of Israel. It shows us the Canaanization of Israel. The judges of Israel increasingly resemble Canaanite leaders and the people of...